Really Weird
 

This one happened to my wife.

For the last few days she has told me that her 01 XC-70 was "acting funny", but only when going up hills. Her main complaint was that it would slow down a little more than usual, and it sounded louder, sort of like the engine was laboring a bit or the exhaust was louder. There were no other drivability issues, the tach never flared, the engine never revved, and the transmission up and downshifted smoothly.
I told her to keep an eye on it and I would check it out when I could.

Fast forward to yesterday, on her same drive it happened again, except for one difference. She said about 3 seconds into climbing a hill, the car started squealing holy hell from the middle of the car. She immediately pulled over and shut the car off. Her and my 17 yr old son got out and loooked for anything obvious. There were no leaks, nothing hanging off, etc, so she restated it. No lights, all gauges normal, enging purring, so she started home. She said it now drives fine, even going up hills (no noises, etc...)

I checked it over today, and could find nothing wrong. No codes, no messages in the computer, all fluids fine, nothing leaking from the bottom, only a burned out drivers side low beam (which I believe was purely coincidental).

Any ideas?? I'm toying with the idea the bevel gear gave up the ghost. Car has 87K on it, trans fluid flush and timing belt change was done about 12K ago, and it had a tune up about 27 K ago (yeah, its due soon)

Glenn

RE: Really Weird
 

sounds exactly like what happened to my '02 except mine only diditin the rain (in colder weather for some reason). After taking it in to volvo (nice guys but what a joke), midas and the tire place i finally figured it out. if the tires are even slightly out of sync with tread wear it causes major problems. mine were almost unnoticeably uneven. i replaced all four tires and the problem is gone. it may be related to the "slush whine" that is well documented on this forum as well but i found that if i rotate my tires every oil change and keep them perfectly matched it stays gone.

RE: Really Weird
 

I also wonder of the driveshaft is starting to mess up.